


The Fifth of July

by flight815kitsune



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flight815kitsune/pseuds/flight815kitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has a horrible memory for dates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fifth of July

“Was yesterday really your birthday?” The billionaire genius playboy philanthropist is leaning through the doorframe of the newly renovated training room in the tower.  
“Yes, Tony.” Steve ceases his assault on a new and improved punching bag and wipes the sweat off of his face with a plain white towel from his shoulders.  
“Seriously? That wasn’t some awful propaganda thing? You really were born on the fourth of July?”  
“Yes.”  
“And why, exactly, didn’t you tell me?”  
“It didn’t seem important.”  
“We would have celebrated! We would have had a party. One with drinks and food and music and models.”  
“We did have a party.”  
“That was a fourth of July cookout. That was not a party. You know me better than that, I know how to have a party. “  
Steve just shakes his head.  
“I mean, did anyone actually treat it like your birthday?”  
“There was a nice amount of fanmail.”  
“That doesn’t count. I’ve seen the kind of fanmail you get. I bet there was maybe one that wasn’t written in crayon.”  
Pink graces the captain’s cheeks.  
“Wait. You got sexy oh-we’re-so-thankful-what-can-we-do fanmail didn’t you?”  
He gets redder up to the tips of his ears.  
“You got offered birthday sex!”  
“Tony.”  
“You could have been licking icing off of a supermodel’s ass and you spent the time manning the grill and then eating Natasha's potato salad?”  
“I liked the small party with the team. I wasn’t expecting anything, it’s fine that you didn’t remember.”  
“Wait. Are you saying that other people remembered?”  
Steve smiles and shakes his head. “It’s fine, Tony.”  
“Who remembered?”  
“I got a card and it was signed by everyone. Even you.”  
Now that he mentions it, there is a vague recollection of signing something that Pepper had shoved into his face at the unholy hour of eight in the morning after his first hours of sleep in what had to have been the better part of a week. Thor had managed to fry yet another comm with high levels of electricity and he had been trying to find some way to insulate it or something because Thor was the only other flyer and they really needed his view in a changing battlefield.  
“That doesn’t count.”  
Steve is unwrapping his hands.  
“What do you want for your present?”  
“You already redid the gym, fixed my bike, and got me a new phone.”  
“Those are nothing. Those are living expenses. Now what do you want? If it’s in my power, it’s yours.”  
He shakes his head with the patient sigh that was formerly reserved for Pepper. The sigh of a sane person doing their best to tolerate Tony Stark for any extended period of time. The two of them enter the elevator.  
“What, in the whole world, do you want?”  
He’s frowning.  
“Oh no. Was this a Capsicle thing? Because I didn’t mean to… Listen- Stark Industries has tried exploring time travel and it’s just not viable yet. Give me a few years…a few decades…You’re young, but we haven’t managed anything near that yet, though I know Clint has probably told you otherwise and I would if I could but think of the space-time continuum-“  
"That's not it."  
"Then what?"  
Steve stares at the elevator doors. Floors pass by in silence. “I won’t get it.” He finally says, a sad little quartet of words.  
“Nope. Don’t even think like that. I am the great and powerful Stark. You’ll get it.”  
Steve puts a hand on his shoulder. Leans in close in a rush. The fingers of his other hand dig into dark messy hair. He pulls Tony into a kiss. It’s a brief, needful thing. He pulls back just as quickly.  
Tony stares, lips parted and brow knotted.  
“That’s what I want.” He sets his shoulders and the stupid kid who wouldn’t back down from a fight is there.  
“Oh. That’s all? Yeah, sure. I can do that.” There’s an easy smirk and it doesn’t matter if his heart wants to race behind the glow and every brain cell capable of logic is screaming that this is not a good idea and is going to end horribly, Steve is getting what he wants for his birthday.  
Even if it is late and broken.


End file.
